Sunday, December 02, 2012

Alberta

I have my dear girl Earthchick to thank for so much, but most recently for this vest. It was her example that got me interested in this pattern. I am the person who sees what another person is ordering in a restaurant / buying at Trader Joe's / knitting and immediately must have it for myself. And so it was with this vest--she was knitting it and I had to knit it too! (Nevermind that she is basically the fastest knitter west of the Pecos and just makes mincemeat of FOs as she charges ever forward, if I concerned myself with such matters I would never get the gumption to try anything at all, now would I?).

Specs:
Pattern: Alberta by Brooklyn Tweed
Size: Large
Yarn: Shelter in Woodsmoke (3) and Tent (1); Noro Silk Garden 359 (2). I think that yardage is correct?
Needles: Size 8
Mods: Well, you know Jared loves his short row shoulder shaping. I took one look at that and was like "Umm, yeah. Probably not this time around--but nice detail nonetheless!".

I am just gaga for this vest! I love the stripes beyond all measure. I love how the stripes change. I love the rustic look of the Shelter combined with the sheen of the Silk Garden. I love that I did not have to knit sleeves for it. Yes, that it was I really love.

This vest represents a real first for me: steeking! I know the experienced steekers in the house are rolling their eyes at this point, but he, BABYSTEPS. I must have watched 11 or so painstakingly-filmed Youtube tutorials on the subject as well as bugged people on Twitter to share their best practices tips with me. There are many schools of thought on the matter of steeking: to crochet a reenforement, to sew a reenforcement, or to not reenforce at all and just cut? The decision was made for me by my piss poor crocheting skills and my utter lack of talent as well as limited access to a sewing machine. Yes folks, I just CUT and it felt great! I am here to tell you that it's basically no big deal. And if for some reason you have special information regarding the secret news that "cutting without reenforcing" is a sure-fire way to have the garment unravel in six months time à la some sort of time-release knitting catastrophe, can you please keep it to yourself? I prefer to blame the recipient for somehow being too rough with it and wearing it out rather than face the notion that my own laziness was somehow to blame.

Now that is an awesome vest. I don't think you really need to worry about unraveling. If you picked up stitches on the edges of the steek, there's really nowhere for the yarn to go if it does unravel. Plus, from what I hear about Shelter, it's pretty grabby.

YAY for beautiful striped vests, YAY for a new post (can you tell we missed you?), YAY for your blatant-yet-still-respectful disregard of a) Jared's carefully planned out shoulders and b) the normal response that knitters usually have when putting metal blades to their knitting. You never disappoint my dear!